My Solider
by Zanessatroyella2017
Summary: "Promise me, you will come back to me." TxG


_March 13__th__, 2019_

_3:15pm _

I took a deep breath as I sat on the bench in the gym and took a long drink of my water. I was a senior at NYU, where I was on the basketball team while getting my degree in business. I was getting ready for our championship March Madness game. I was excited for the game but sad at the same time because my career was ending with this game. Much to people's dismay, I decided not to go pro. Things in my life changed and I just didn't have the heart anymore.

"Hey dude ready for the big game tomorrow." I looked up at my best friend Chad Danforth. We have been friends since pre-school and thicker than thieves.

"Definitely. I can't wait to see everybody." Our parents were here for the game along with Chad's girlfriend who also went to NYU with us.

"Well not everyone." Chad gave me a sad look as all I could do is nodded. There was one person who wouldn't be here, and they had a good reason.

"Have you heard from her?" I sighed as I shook my head and ran my hand through my hair.

"No and it is killing me because I just want to hear her voice. Just to know that she is okay"

He patted my back with a solemnly look as our coach called us back to finish off practice. Once practice was over and I was done changing, I got in my car and took a deep breath. I reached for the dog tags around my neck as I looked at them with tears in my eyes. I opened my phone to stare at the picture of the raven-haired beauty, who captured my heart at the young age of 15. Gabriella Montez has been my best friend since the age of 7. We met at a mutual friend, Taylor McKessie's, 7th birthday. Gabriella's and Taylor's fathers were both in the Army and when Gabriella's family moved to town they got reconnected and invited her to Taylor's party so that they could get to know everyone. We had a connection the moment we met. We did just about everything together and if you say one of us, the other wasn't that far behind. At 14, I fell in love with her and at the age of 15 we finally decided to try our luck at a relationship and have been together ever since.

Now where is she might you ask? I wish I knew the answer to that question. You see at the age of 18, Gabriella followed in her father's footsteps and enlisted the army. It killed me when she told me that she wanted to join but it's what made her happy and I would never come in between her happiness. I still remember the day she found out that she was getting sent overseas.

_May 15, 2014_

_I stood in the park as I was searching for my girlfriend of 3 years. She had text me and told me to meet her here because she had something to tell me. As I was walking, I noticed her seating on a bench with something in her hand. I smiled as I ran over to her and picked her up making her gasp before giggling. _

"_Troyyyyy, put me down." I smiled as I absolutely loved to hear that giggle. It was my all time favorite sound in the world._

"_Hi baby." I kissed her soundly once I sat her down. We pulled back as I frowned looking at her. I could tell that she had been crying._

"_Brie what's wrong?" She lowered her head as I felt my heart beating fast. I had a bad feeling about this._

"_I um..I need to tell you something." I could tell that she was struggling with her words, so I just grabbed her hands gently and kissed them. She looked up at me and I gave her a small smile, telling her that it was okay. She reached for the piece of paper that was on the bench and handed it to me. I scrunched my eyebrows together as I opened the letter and read it. I felt my heart drop down to my stomach as I looked back up at her to see tears in her eyes._

"_You've been called? Its only been a month since you enlisted! I thought we would have had some time before this happen" My voice was louder than I wanted it to be. I didn't even realize that I was yelling until I heard a sob come out of her mouth. I watched as the tears started to fall from her eyes and I just pulled her into my arms as we cried together. _

"_I'm sorry Troy. I..I didn't know that this would happen so quickly. I understand if you want to break up with me." I pulled back from her quickly as I shook my head. _

"_No! No, baby I will never break up with you. I'm just sad because I didn't expect this. I told you that you are the one for me and that is the truth." I wiped her tears away as I kissed her forehead. "It will be hard but we will handle this baby okay. You don't leave until the end of July. We have time." She nodded her head with a small smile as I pulled her into a hug. Little did she know my heart was slowly breaking. _

That day, once I took her home, I went back home and cried my eyes out. I cried into my mother's arms because I was terrified. I was terrified that my girlfriend was going to war. That I would never see her again, but I couldn't tell her that. I had to be strong. I had to be her support system. Besides her parents, I was her biggest support system. That summer, we spent damn near every single day together. I would stay over her house and vice versa. Our parents didn't really mind as long as we kept the door open. Her parents understood what was about to happen and my parents just wanted me to be happy. If we weren't together alone, then we with our friends. We all wanted to make that summer special. Then that day I had been dreading finally came.

_July 27__th__ 2014_

_I stood on the side as I just watched the scene before me. All around me stood soldiers and their family members. Soldiers that were going off and maybe never coming back home. There was only one that I was worried about though. I looked at my girlfriend as she was hugging Taylor and Chad. Her and Taylor were in tears and Chad was trying his hardest not to cry. They both saw her as a sister, and I knew this was just as hard on them. My parents were here as well. Gabriella was like a daughter to them. I watched as she hugged my mom and then my dad picked her up which made her laugh. Of course, her parents were here. Her dad had a proud look on his face and who could blame him. His daughter was following in his footsteps. Her mother was proud, but at the same time I knew she just as scared as the rest of us. I looked over at her as she looked absolutely beautiful in her uniform but then again she looked beautiful in just about anything, but today was different. After she hugged her parents, she turned and looked at me as I gave her a small smile. I saw the tears in her eyes, and I tried everything to hold mine in. I opened my arms as she ran into them and hugged me tight. I felt her crying and I couldn't help but let my tears fall._

"_I'm going to miss you so much Wildcat." I closed my eyes as I took in her scent. It was my favorite scent in the world._

"_I'm going to miss you too baby. I snuck one of my hoodies into your bag." She pulled back laughing as I gave off a small smile. I rubbed my thumb across her cheek as we leaned in for a kiss. I pulled back and we connected our foreheads as we both had our eyes closed. _

"_Promise me, you will come back to me." I felt the tears in my eyes as Gabriella ran her hand through my hair._

"_I'm promise baby. Its only one year. One year and then I'll be back and I'll be at NYU with you, Chad and Taylor." I nodded my head as I kissed her forehead. "I have something for you." _

_I watched her pull something out of her pocket. I looked to see that they were a set of dog tags with her name and other information. She slide it over my neck before running her hands down my chest. I looked at the dog tags and smiled before looking into her eyes._

"_I asked for an extra set. This way you will always have me with you. I also left something for you on your bed. Open it when you miss me. Like really miss me, not once you get home." I chuckled as she knew me so well. We kissed again as I put everything into this kiss. She was going to be gone for a year and we both needed to remember this. _

"_Soldiers, time to go." I felt my heart stop as we looked at each other. I looked over her trying to remember everything as she gave me a small smile. _

"_I love you Wildcat." _

"_I love you too baby girl." I gave her one last kiss before she went and said goodbye to everyone else. I stood by my parents and friends with tears in my eyes as I watched the love of my life board the plane with everyone else. She turned back and looked at us with a small, teary smile before walking from our sight._

* * *

I walked into my apartment that I shared with Chad with a sigh. A day didn't go by that I didn't think about Gabriella. What we thought would only be a year, turned into a year in a half, 2 years and then the next thing I know its nearly been 5 years. 5 years since I lasted touched her, kissed her, held her. We used to talk every chance that she got. We would facetime if she could or we would just talk on the phone. We talked about everything under the sun. We talked about school, our families, how she was handling being in Iraq, everything. Suddenly the calls and video chats stopped. I hadn't heard voice in nearly 3 years and it killed me. I was scared shitless that she was dead. The only thing that was giving me hope was the fact that no soldiers had shown up at her parent's house. As long as that didn't happen, I knew she was okay. I just wish I knew when she was coming home.

I grabbed a water for the fridge, before going into my room. Chad and Taylor along with a couple of our other friends were going out tonight and asked if I wanted to join but I declined. Normally I would join them, but I had my days when I just wanted to be alone. On those days, I would call Gabriella's mom, Christina. She was the one who knew exactly how I was feeling.

Christina and Alex, Gabriella's Dad, had been together since they were 18. They had been friends all their lives and then about a year before Alex joined the army, they got together. Christina had always known that Alex was going to join the army, but that never pushed her away. He was gone for a year and a half the first time he left. The two got married sometime after that and then a little less then a year later she got pregnant with Gabriella. Alex had been on about 5 tours since he's been in the army. His longest was 6 years and that was right after they had moved to New Mexico. She knew what it felt like to worry about your love one. To not hear from them for months, even years. She was someone I could confined in. She helped me get through those bad days when all I wanted to do was be with Gabriella.

I went into my room and set on my bed as I pulled out a book from my dresser. The book was a scrapbook that Gabriella had made for me before she left. They were pictures of us starting from our first date all the way up to the day she left. Pictures of us at parties, during holidays, birthdays, even on family vacations. Pictures of us at school dances and on graduation. Pictures of us the day that she was official a U.S. Army Solider. I even added a picture from the day she left. Taylor had captured me kissing her forehead before she boarded the plane. My all time favorite picture of us was on our first date. She wanted to take pictures of us and that was the moment I went in for a kiss, out first kiss.

_I was happy as hell as I sat in the pizza parlor with my date, my best friend, Gabriella Montez. The two of us have been best friends since we were 7 but last year, something changed. We started high school and well, my feelings for her went from best friend to wanting more. I didn't act on my feelings immediately, because I wanted to make sure that they were true, and boy are they. When she agreed to go out with me, I was on cloud nine. Now that we are here on the date, I couldn't be happier. I smiled as I stared at her. She looked absolutely beautiful. She was wearing a cute blue spring dress and her hair was down in her natural curls. I wanted to so badly run my hands through them. _

"_Troy." I snapped out of my thoughts as I looked to see Gabriella was amused smile at me._

"_Huh"_

"_You okay? You look in deep thought" I shook my head as I gave her a smile. _

"_I'm fine. I was just thinking about how beautiful you look." She blushed and looked down as I just smiled and I scooted closer to her in the booth. I gently took her hand as I kissed it, only making her blush more._

"_I'm really happy you agreed to go out with me Brie." She looked over at me and I saw that her eyes were sparking. God, could she get any cuter._

"_I'm really happy you asked me out." She kissed my cheek as it was my turn to blush._

"_Can we take a picture?"_

_I nodded my head as she took her phone out and turned it towards us. The first couple of pictures we were both smiling and laughing with one another. One of them, she caught me stare at her with a smile on both of our faces. I had the sudden urge to kiss her. When she went in to take the final picture, I went in and kissed her. I heard the snap of the picture and I pulled back to see her eyes closed with a smile on her face. She opened her eyes and I swear, they were shinning. She turned back and looked at the picture before showing it to me._

"_I think I found my new favorite picture of us." She told me as I smiled at her before placing a lose curl behind her ear._

"_I think its my favorite too."_

I felt the tears in my eyes looking at these pictures. All I wanted was her back in my arms. Even if I got one day, I would be happy. I turned to the back of the book and opened the letter that she placed there. I had read this letter so many times that I could recite it.

_Dear Wildcat,_

_I hoped you listened and waited until you really missed me before reading this. I miss you already and I haven't even left yet. I can't even imagine how it is going to feel once I leave. I just want to say that I love you so much Troy. I know how hard this is for you. I know you are trying so hard to support me and I love you for that but I can see how much this is affecting you. Thank you for being one of my biggest supporters though. Thank you for being there every step of the way. Know that you will always be on my mind while I am gone. I will miss everything about you. Your laugh, your face, your hugs and kisses. I will miss cuddling with you and playing basketball with you. I will miss just being able to see you every single day. I promise you that I will come back to you baby. I will come back and once I do, we will start our lives together, just like we've always dreamed. Remember how we talked about moving to LA and starting a family? When times get tough, think about that. Think about us married with kids. I know I will be thinking about it. I love you so much baby, please never forget that. _

_Yours forever,_

_~Brie~_

I laid back on my bed as I touched the dog tags that I never took off unless I had to. The tears dropped down my face as I held the letter and dog tags close to my heart. "God, I know I ask you the same thing everyday but please, please bring my baby back to me. I know she is over there fighting and trying to keep people safe, but I miss her so damn much. I just, I need her back. If you can't send her back now, then please make sure she knows that I love her and that I miss her. Let her know that I haven't given up on her and I just want her home."

* * *

_March 14,2019_

_6:30pm_

I sat against my locker with my headphones on as I tried to breath. I was nervous for tonight, but at the same time I was happy that we had made it to the championship. Win or lose, I was happy. I saw my parents, Taylor and Chad's parents earlier as we had all went out to eat before the game. They were all proud of us, but there was one person that I wish was here with me. I pulled out my phone and looked through my pictures that I had of us and smiled when I found the one from our championship game senior year. She was a cheerleader in high school and my all-time biggest fan. My mom had snapped this picture of us. She had jumped into my arms and had her legs wrapped around my waist as I had my arms wrapped tightly around her and we were both in strong lip lock. Before every big game, I always pull out this picture and remembered that she was right here with me. She was my cheerleader and always will be.

"Yo, hoops!" I looked up to see Chad waving me over to him. I rose my eyebrow as I took my headphones out of my ear and placed them in my locker before walking over to him.

"What's up?"

"Our parents want to see us really quick." I frowned as that was weird. The game started in 20 minutes, why would they want to see us? I walked out in the hallway and smiled as I saw Gabriella's parents standing next to ours and Taylor.

"Alex, Christina hey! What are you two doing here?" I hugged the people who I saw as my second parents with a smile.

"It's the championship! You knew we couldn't miss this." Christina smiled up at me as I loved that they were here to support us. It was like Gabriella was here too.

"Can I join in on this too?" I felt my heart stop as I spun around. There in front of my eyes was a ghost. It had to be a ghost.

"B..Brie" There she stood, the love of my life, seven feet away from me in a NYU basketball shirt and a pair of jeans. He hair was down in those curls that I love so much.

"Hi Wildcat." She gave me a small smile and before I knew it, I had ran to her and pulled her into a arms. Her hands were around my neck and mines was around her waist as we both cried into each others shoulders. I pulled back and did the one thing I've been wanting to do since the moment she got on that plane all those years ago.

I kissed her.

This kiss held so much love that I felt my heart burst. It was just like I remembered. I didn't want to pull back but air became an issue, so I had to. When we pulled back, she had the biggest smile on her face as I mirrored it. I looked over her body as nothing had changed. She looked older but she was still beautiful.

"What are you doing here? How are you here?" I had tears in my eyes as just smiled at me and ran her hands through my hair.

"I'm here to support you silly. I flew home yesterday and Chad picked us up about 2 hours ago." My head flew around to look at my best friend and our families, who had the biggest smiles on their faces.

"You guys knew?!"

"Of course we did hoops. The look on your face was worth it." I smiled at them as I turned back to look at my girlfriend. I needed to ask her a question even though I was scared at the answer.

"How long are you here?" She looked at me in my eyes and I swear I saw a twinkle in her eyes.

"I finish my tour baby. I'm home." I felt my heart explode at that answer. I pulled her in for a hug again as I cried into her neck. She was here and she was home.

"Bolton, Danforth, lets go." I heard my coach's voice as I completely forgot about the game. I didn't even want to play anymore. I just wanted to hold my baby girl and never let go. She pulled back and wiped my tears.

"Go. I'll be here after the game and remember win or lose, I'll always be your cheerleader." I gave her a huge smile as I nodded my head and kissed her.

"I love you." I hadn't said those words to her in so long and they still felt amazing to say. She smiled at me as she squeezed my hand.

"I love you too Wildcat. Now go kick ass."

* * *

_10pm_

I pulled her naked body close to me as I felt like this was a dream. Last night, I was crying because I missed her so much and now, I had her here laying in my arms. Tonight, I had played one of my best games in the last 4 years. We won the championship 97-77 and I had 59 of those points. Once the game was over and the pictures were taken, I declined going out with the team. Instead, I stole my girlfriend for a much-needed reunion. I pulled her closer to me as I kissed the top of her head and ran my fingers through her hair.

"I missed you so fucking much Brie. You have no idea how happy you just made me." She leaned her head up to look back at me with a smile on her face as I kissed her gently.

"I missed you too baby. You have no idea how hard it was to not just fly here."

"I'm happy you surprised me though. I always imagined our reunion but God, this is ten times better." She smiled as she ran her hands through my hair and pulled me in for a kiss. I pulled her closer to me, if that was even possible. I ran my hands down her body as I flipped us over so that I was on top. I kissed ever part of her body. Her ears, nose, lips, neck, chest, everywhere. I stopped though when I saw a scar on her left arm. I traced it and looked up at her to see her looking back at me.

"What happened?"

"It happened about a week after I stopped contacting everyone. I was doing a night walk through one of the areas with my battle buddy when I got hit. It wasn't a bad hit but it still hurt like a bitch." I tried to hide the fact that I was tearing up but I didn't do a good job because she wiped the tear.

"I'm okay baby." I shook my head as I traced the scar.

"That was my biggest fear. You getting hurt and the fact that I had no control over it hurt like hell. I was always so scared when your mom would call. I was scared that she was going to tell me that we lost you." She shook her head as she gave me a slow kiss.

"I made a promise to you that I was coming home, and I wasn't going back on my promise. The was the main thing that kept me going over there baby. Even on the bad days, I knew I had to keep pushing to get back to you." I kissed her scar before pulling her in for a hug. She pulled back and flipped us so that she was on top.

"I know that this was hard as hell for you baby and I'm sorry for putting you through all of that pain. When I was told that I wouldn't be able to connect family because of our mission, I wanted to cry. Talking to you, facetiming you, is what got me through the day and I knew you would be worried about me. When we were told that we were coming home, I cried. I cried because I was so close to being with you again. I know this will never get easy, but thank you for never giving up on me." I shook my head as I stared into her eyes.

"I was never going to give up on you baby. Yes, these past 4 years have been hard as hell but I knew joining the army is what made you happy. I prayed every night that you were safe and for God to bring you back to me and he answered. When our communication stopped, I was scared, but I always told myself that as long as no soldiers showed up at your house, then you were safe. Seeing you tonight in the hallway, seeing you cheering me on, brought me such joy. You are my girl and no length of time will ever change that. I love you." I wiped her tears away as I brought her in for another kiss.

I knew that this life would never get any easier. I knew that she probably would get called to fight again, but I will never stop loving her. I will never give up on her. She is my girl, my solider and just like she will always be my biggest supporter, I will always be hers.

* * *

**There you guys go. This story popped in my head and I just had to get it out. I almost started crying reading this because soldiers will always have a special place in my heart. Please review and tell me what you all think.**


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